Lu Changsheng deftly wiped the spiritual imprint from the scale and tossed it into his Storage Jade Box, which was already nearly stuffed full. He let out a long breath of stale air.
Two thousand years of frenzied looting and helping the dead pass on had not only earned him a terrifying fortune, enough to buy half of the Primordial Land's barren regions, but also allowed him to absorb an ocean of Heavenly Dao Merit.
As for him now...
His cultivation was still at the peak of the True Immortal realm, but that was because he had deliberately held it back, refusing to break through that final barrier.
The source of Great Dao Merit in his dantian, however, had grown until it was like a dazzling sun.
In fact, a faint, illusory golden wheel had already begun to take shape behind his head. It was a sign that his merit had grown so dense that it was about to manifest as a celestial phenomenon!
"Once this Merit Golden Wheel fully solidifies, even if I go out without the Mysterious Yellow Shield, those Daluo Golden Immortals probably won't dare so much as lay a finger on me."
Lu Changsheng secretly weighed the matter in his mind.
He rose to his feet, preparing to leave this ancient immortal mountain site.
Suddenly...
The roots of the Cowardly Immortal Vine wrapped around his wrist gave a sharp twitch.
This time, its shudder was far more violent than when it had sensed any treasure or corpse before. There was even a hint of unmistakable fear in it.
"Something's going on?"
Lu Changsheng immediately stopped and spread the Mysterious Yellow Shield's barrier, protecting himself from head to toe.
He looked in the direction the Cowardly Immortal Vine indicated.
Deep in the valley, an extremely faint yet impossibly noble aura was gasping in and out, barely perceptible.
The aura was mixed with thunderclap laws capable of destroying heaven and earth, as well as a putrid stench so foul it made him want to retch.
It was the deathly aura of karmic backlash, of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man descending!
"What terrifying pressure... This definitely isn't a Golden Immortal or an ordinary Primordial Unity Golden Immortal."
Lu Changsheng furrowed his brow, a flicker of hesitation in his golden eyes.
According to the principles of the Dao of Cowardice, when faced with an unknown being of this level radiating such extreme danger, his first reaction should have been to turn tail and run, then set up a concealment array and play dead.
But after two thousand years of smooth-sailing treasure hunting, along with the confidence that came from having Great Dao Merit protect him, greed ultimately won out over fear.
"If a being can radiate such pressure, how rich would the reward be if I helped it pass on—or... made a deal with it?"
Lu Changsheng gritted his teeth.
"The bold get the meat, while the timid starve. With the Mysterious Yellow Shield, as long as it isn't a Daluo Golden Immortal at full strength, I should be able to protect myself."
He slapped three top-grade Breath Concealment Talismans onto himself, completely suppressing his aura. Like a phantom without substance, he crept along the edge of the valley, inch by inch.
The closer he got to the heart of the valley, the more horrifying the surroundings became.
The valley, which should have teemed with life, had become a dead zone.
Every plant had not only withered but had even melted into pools of foul-smelling black water.
Even the laws in the void were being eroded by that terrifying deathly aura, letting out a series of distorted wails.
With the Mysterious Yellow Shield over him, Lu Changsheng endured the deathly aura, which was potent enough to corrode a True Immortal's body, and finally reached the very heart of the valley.
When he saw what lay within...
Even though he had prepared himself, he couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. His scalp prickled.
In a huge pit at the center of the valley...
A terrifying beast, massive as a mountain, lay sprawled across the ground.
It had a dragon's head, a deer's antlers, a lion's eyes, a tiger's back, a bear's waist, snake scales, horse's hooves, and an ox's tail.
Its body should have shimmered with the mighty auspicious light of five colors, but that light had long since been swallowed by black karmic forces so dense they seemed to have no end.
Large patches of its scales had fallen away, revealing horrifying wounds that went deep enough to show bone.
No blood flowed from the wounds. Only dark-gray deathly energy churned within them.
Even more shocking, a fatal sword gash ran down the center of its head, nearly splitting its skull in two. Purple thunder raged faintly inside the wound.
"A Qilin... and a pure-blooded Royal Qilin!"
Hiding behind a boulder, Lu Changsheng recognized the beast's origins at once, thanks to his two thousand years of battlefield scavenging.
And judging by the pressure it still radiated, even on the verge of death...
This was undoubtedly a great powerhouse of the Daluo Golden Immortal level! It was quite possibly a direct blood relative of the First Qilin!
"A Daluo Golden Immortal..."
Lu Changsheng's breathing quickened.
A being of this level could sneeze outside and blow countless True Immortals like him to death.
But now it lay there like a dead dog, on the verge of having its soul scattered.
"What a pity. Karmic forces have already seeped into its true spirit."
"Even if I poured all my Great Dao Merit into it, I couldn't save it. At most, I could help dispel some of the surface baleful energy. I couldn't even help it reincarnate and cultivate anew."
Lu Changsheng shook his head, feeling a little regretful.
Since it couldn't be saved, he would just have to wait until it was well and truly dead before rummaging through its body. The treasures inside a Daluo Golden Immortal's storage artifact would surely be enough to make his mouth water.
Just as Lu Changsheng was figuring out how to loot the corpse safely...
The enormous Qilin in the pit suddenly let out a faint gasp.
Its huge eyes, which had already closed, struggled open a narrow slit.
The eyes that should have been filled with majesty now held nothing but endless gloom and despair.
It did not look toward where Lu Changsheng was hiding. Instead, it desperately shifted its massive head to shield the area beneath its belly.
There, a faint five-colored glow flickered with difficulty.
That was...
An egg.
A Qilin Egg, only about the size of a water vat, its surface covered in profound innate Dao patterns!
But the egg was in just as dire a state.
The karmic forces clinging to the Daluo Qilin had inevitably spread to the egg.
The five-colored glow on its shell was being eroded, strand by strand, by wisps of black deathly energy.
If nothing changed, the life within the egg would be completely snuffed out by the karmic forces in no more than a hundred years.
"My lord... cannot accept this..."
The Daluo Qilin let out a sigh of utter sorrow.
Its voice was weak, yet it rumbled through the valley like muffled thunder.
"The Dragon Phoenix conspired together... and ambushed my lord... They even seek to sever the direct bloodline of my Qilin Clan..."
"How unjust is the Heavenly Dao..."
Two streams of bloody tears ran from the Daluo Qilin's eyes. It knew there was no turning back, and that even the last shred of its true spirit would not survive.
Its only regret was that the egg beneath it, containing all its hopes...
It was also the direct descendant that bore all its hopes and the future of the Qilin Clan. It would be reduced to ash in this dead zone along with it.
Hidden behind the boulder, Lu Changsheng's heart stirred slightly as he heard those words.
An egg from the direct bloodline of the Qilin Clan?
That was one hot potato!
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